Unified Patents raises money from companies that are the target of patent-trolling and then uses it to challenge the most widely used patents in each of its members' sectors: now it's going for the gold.
(more…)

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Unified Patents raises money from companies that are the target of patent-trolling and then uses it to challenge the most widely used patents in each of its members' sectors: now it's going for the gold.
(more…)

Today we travel to a future full of spreadsheet approved lives. A future where everything we do is tracked and quantified: calories, air quality, sleep, heart rate, microbes, brain waves, finances, happiness, sadness, menstrual cycles, poops, hopes and dreams. Everything.

This episode is longer than our usual 20 minute jaunts to the future, because the future of quantified self is so huge. We cover everything from biased algorithms, to microbiomes (again), to the future of the calorie, and more.

Today we travel to a future full of spreadsheet approved lives. A future where everything we do is tracked and quantified: calories, air quality, sleep, heart rate, microbes, brain waves, finances, happiness, sadness, menstrual cycles, poops, hopes and dreams. Everything.

This episode is longer than our usual 20 minute jaunts to the future, because the future of quantified self is so huge. We cover everything from biased algorithms, to microbiomes (again), to the future of the calorie, and more.

A truly great DJ, just for a moment, can make a whole room fall in love, because DJ'ing is not about playing a few tunes. It is about generating shared moods; it's about understanding the feelings of a group of people and directing them to a better place. In the hands of a master, the right music can create rituals of spiritual communion that can be the most powerful events in peoples' lives. – Bill Brewster

In electronic music, the beat is everything. As an artist, your goal during a set is simple: take the crowd on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. How do you do this? There are countless mechanical elements, of course, things like the pace of songs and the tension and tempo, but the paramount thing is reading the crowd with as much focus as you can. You need to intuit what they’re feeling and thinking, read what hits and what flops, and then fine-tune along the way and in future sets. It’s not an easy thing to judge with accuracy: Your best guess at what the crowd is feeling comes in the form of yells, fist pumps, or that all-important but ever-elusive “vibe.” Subjective? Sure, but it’s all you’ve got.

But it’s what separates a mediocre DJ from a great one: their ability to absorb the crowd and work them. In that last 6 years, we’ve performed for well over a million people. In front of 100 people and in front of 100,000 people. We’re not perfect or the best in the world at, but we’ve gotten pretty good.

Earlier this year we were hanging out with a friend of ours that told us about a story on Boing Boing where a woman had worn a fitbit during sex. We checked it out and thought it was intriguing. You could see the rising heart rate and the spikes of activity, real data attached to the most natural act any of us know.

What happened next started as an idle joke. “I bet our sets produce an even crazier reaction,” someone remarked. Everyone laughed. Then stopped laughing when we all realized that the joke could become a genuine experiment.

The execution was simple: we’d ask a few of our fans to wear heart rate monitors to our sold out show at Vulcan Gas Company in Austin. We’d record the set, capture all the data from the heart rate monitors, and we’d overlay the rhythm patterns on the progression of the recorded set. We played in a purposefully smaller venue that night, so we knew it would be prime to really go off.

To ensure accuracy, we limited the participants to ones who agreed to be sober during the whole set. No alcohol, tobacco, illegal substances, etc. All agreed (though as you’ll see, one of them clearly did not comply).

There was no real goal other than to see--outside of clapping or social media reactions--how people really felt and reacted to our music. To see what songs our fans particularly loved. And not just which songs, but which parts of which songs, and which beats in which parts of which songs.

As you can see below, while people’s hearts all went along their own paths, there were a few points in the night when everyone’s heart rate shot up in unison.

All Heart Rates

Average Heart Rate

6 Biggest Spikes

Zeds Dead -- Hadouken

Zeds Dead -- Lost You

Zeds Dead -- Adrenaline

Dodge and Fuski -- Positive Vibe

Zeds Dead & Melodon -- Wit Me Dub

DJ SKT -- Take Me Away ft. Rae (Andy C Remix)

“Participant 4”

And then we have “participant 4”. Ah, participant 4. As much as we’d love to believe our music shot someone’s heart rate up to a level described by the American Heart Association as “extremely high intensity”, a range where people over 40 may die (180 beats per minute), our interactions with this participant that night made it clear their interpretation of “sober” was quite loose.

When this particular participant stumbled into the green room after the show, it was like a scene out of the walking dead, and immediately obvious it was not just adrenaline running through his veins. Last we saw he was sliding down the stairs with emphatic thuds each step his butt hit.

Participant 4 aside, it was cool to see trends among heart rates and something we may keep in mind for future sets. We plan to explore other data collection points in future shows, to see what type clear data we can put behind a previously subjective point.]]>

https://youtu.be/46HqvYOEcgc

A truly great DJ, just for a moment, can make a whole room fall in love, because DJ'ing is not about playing a few tunes. It is about generating shared moods; it's about understanding the feelings of a group of people and directing them to a better place. In the hands of a master, the right music can create rituals of spiritual communion that can be the most powerful events in peoples' lives. – Bill Brewster

In electronic music, the beat is everything. As an artist, your goal during a set is simple: take the crowd on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. How do you do this? There are countless mechanical elements, of course, things like the pace of songs and the tension and tempo, but the paramount thing is reading the crowd with as much focus as you can. You need to intuit what they’re feeling and thinking, read what hits and what flops, and then fine-tune along the way and in future sets. It’s not an easy thing to judge with accuracy: Your best guess at what the crowd is feeling comes in the form of yells, fist pumps, or that all-important but ever-elusive “vibe.” Subjective? Sure, but it’s all you’ve got.

But it’s what separates a mediocre DJ from a great one: their ability to absorb the crowd and work them. In that last 6 years, we’ve performed for well over a million people. In front of 100 people and in front of 100,000 people. We’re not perfect or the best in the world at, but we’ve gotten pretty good.

Earlier this year we were hanging out with a friend of ours that told us about a story on Boing Boing where a woman had worn a fitbit during sex. We checked it out and thought it was intriguing. You could see the rising heart rate and the spikes of activity, real data attached to the most natural act any of us know.

What happened next started as an idle joke. “I bet our sets produce an even crazier reaction,” someone remarked. Everyone laughed. Then stopped laughing when we all realized that the joke could become a genuine experiment.

The execution was simple: we’d ask a few of our fans to wear heart rate monitors to our sold out show at Vulcan Gas Company in Austin. We’d record the set, capture all the data from the heart rate monitors, and we’d overlay the rhythm patterns on the progression of the recorded set. We played in a purposefully smaller venue that night, so we knew it would be prime to really go off.

To ensure accuracy, we limited the participants to ones who agreed to be sober during the whole set. No alcohol, tobacco, illegal substances, etc. All agreed (though as you’ll see, one of them clearly did not comply).

There was no real goal other than to see--outside of clapping or social media reactions--how people really felt and reacted to our music. To see what songs our fans particularly loved. And not just which songs, but which parts of which songs, and which beats in which parts of which songs.

As you can see below, while people’s hearts all went along their own paths, there were a few points in the night when everyone’s heart rate shot up in unison.

All Heart Rates

Average Heart Rate

6 Biggest Spikes

Zeds Dead -- Hadouken

Zeds Dead -- Lost You

Zeds Dead -- Adrenaline

Dodge and Fuski -- Positive Vibe

Zeds Dead & Melodon -- Wit Me Dub

DJ SKT -- Take Me Away ft. Rae (Andy C Remix)

“Participant 4”

And then we have “participant 4”. Ah, participant 4. As much as we’d love to believe our music shot someone’s heart rate up to a level described by the American Heart Association as “extremely high intensity”, a range where people over 40 may die (180 beats per minute), our interactions with this participant that night made it clear their interpretation of “sober” was quite loose.

When this particular participant stumbled into the green room after the show, it was like a scene out of the walking dead, and immediately obvious it was not just adrenaline running through his veins. Last we saw he was sliding down the stairs with emphatic thuds each step his butt hit.

Participant 4 aside, it was cool to see trends among heart rates and something we may keep in mind for future sets. We plan to explore other data collection points in future shows, to see what type clear data we can put behind a previously subjective point.]]>

Amazon is selling Dash Buttons for $5. They contain a Wi-Fi radio and a battery. You are supposed to stick them to your washing machine, inside a cabinet door, etc, and when you run out of Tide, Gatorade, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc., you just push the button and Amazon will ship you more.

Clever people are starting to find moire interesting uses for the Dash Buttons, such as Ted Benson, who has written a guide that shows you "how to hijack and use these buttons for just about anything you want."
https://youtu.be/qKSqV44RZ3E
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Amazon is selling Dash Buttons for $5. They contain a Wi-Fi radio and a battery. You are supposed to stick them to your washing machine, inside a cabinet door, etc, and when you run out of Tide, Gatorade, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc., you just push the button and Amazon will ship you more.

Clever people are starting to find moire interesting uses for the Dash Buttons, such as Ted Benson, who has written a guide that shows you "how to hijack and use these buttons for just about anything you want."
https://youtu.be/qKSqV44RZ3E
]]>

Our pals at Quantified Self are hosting a big expo in San Francisco on Saturday and they're offering BB readers a $10 discount off the $20 ticket price! Get hip to the self-tracking scene and see your life through the lens of data! Event details here. (more…)

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Our pals at Quantified Self are hosting a big expo in San Francisco on Saturday and they're offering BB readers a $10 discount off the $20 ticket price! Get hip to the self-tracking scene and see your life through the lens of data! Event details here. (more…)

Is this fear mongering for new moms? Or will these devices actually offer valuable data on infants? I think it's too early to tell. But the paper does a good job of critiquing the design pitfalls of the user experience. It argues such devices could needlessly raise anxiety and remove intuition from parenting.

There's a cool hand-drawn storyboard of a new mom deciding not to go the park with Johnny after she binges on biometric data:

Also, a good rendering of an epidemiological map overlay that would show all the kids in your neighborhood suffering from excessive booger:

Is this fear mongering for new moms? Or will these devices actually offer valuable data on infants? I think it's too early to tell. But the paper does a good job of critiquing the design pitfalls of the user experience. It argues such devices could needlessly raise anxiety and remove intuition from parenting.

There's a cool hand-drawn storyboard of a new mom deciding not to go the park with Johnny after she binges on biometric data:

Also, a good rendering of an epidemiological map overlay that would show all the kids in your neighborhood suffering from excessive booger:

]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/02/25/the-dystopian-future-of-quanti.html/feed11367243Detect your pulse with your webcamhttp://boingboing.net/2013/04/16/detect-your-pulse-with-your-we.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/04/16/detect-your-pulse-with-your-we.html#commentsTue, 16 Apr 2013 15:17:21 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=224615
Thearn released a free/open program for detecting and monitoring your pulse using your webcam. The code is on github for you to download, play with and modify. If this stuff takes your fancy, be sure and read Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World, an inspiring paper describing the techniques Thearn uses in his code:

This application uses openCV (http://opencv.org/) to find the location of the user's face, then isolate the forehead region. Data is collected from this location over time to estimate the user's heartbeat frequency. This is done by measuring average optical intensity in the forehead location, in the subimage's green channel alone. Physiological data can be estimated this way thanks to the optical absorbtion characteristics of oxygenated hemoglobin.

With good lighting and minimal noise due to motion, a stable heartbeat should be isolated in about 15 seconds. Other physiological waveforms, such as Mayer waves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayer_waves), should also be visible in the raw data stream.

Once the user's pulse signal has been isolated, temporal phase variation associated with the detected hearbeat frequency is also computed. This allows for the heartbeat frequency to be exaggerated in the post-process frame rendering; causing the highlighted forhead location to pulse in sync with the user's own heartbeat (in real time).

Support for pulse-detection on multiple simultaneous people in an camera's image stream is definitely possible, but at the moment only the information from one face is extracted for cardiac analysis

Thearn released a free/open program for detecting and monitoring your pulse using your webcam. The code is on github for you to download, play with and modify. If this stuff takes your fancy, be sure and read Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World, an inspiring paper describing the techniques Thearn uses in his code:

This application uses openCV (http://opencv.org/) to find the location of the user's face, then isolate the forehead region. Data is collected from this location over time to estimate the user's heartbeat frequency. This is done by measuring average optical intensity in the forehead location, in the subimage's green channel alone. Physiological data can be estimated this way thanks to the optical absorbtion characteristics of oxygenated hemoglobin.

With good lighting and minimal noise due to motion, a stable heartbeat should be isolated in about 15 seconds. Other physiological waveforms, such as Mayer waves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayer_waves), should also be visible in the raw data stream.

Once the user's pulse signal has been isolated, temporal phase variation associated with the detected hearbeat frequency is also computed. This allows for the heartbeat frequency to be exaggerated in the post-process frame rendering; causing the highlighted forhead location to pulse in sync with the user's own heartbeat (in real time).

Support for pulse-detection on multiple simultaneous people in an camera's image stream is definitely possible, but at the moment only the information from one face is extracted for cardiac analysis

Why just prompt behavior change on an individual level, when we can do so much more? Behavior evolution—or behavior change at scale and over time—is the new frontier. Ubiquitous connectivity, real-time remote monitoring, and social networking are three of the most prevalent factors revolutionizing health care. We’ll see more and more people connect to devices, share their data, and reach out to others. Doing so will allow them to enhance their care experiences by relating with others with similar symptoms, receiving social support for achieving goals, and “crowdsourcing” treatments and cures.

In addition to patients receiving more personalized guidance, individual health data that is collected will increasingly be used to provide more proactive care at the population level. Yes, many connected care solutions that collect individual data exist today, from Patients Like Me, a data-centric social networking site; Cure Together, a health-tracking site; and Asthmapolis, a system that allows patients to connect to a mobile app via a sensor-enabled inhaler. In 2013, expect more services such as these to emerge and grow. They synthesize information to make it more relevant to providers and patients alike, and therefore actionable; then these services broadcast their analyses to improve the quality of life for not just one, but for all.

Why just prompt behavior change on an individual level, when we can do so much more? Behavior evolution—or behavior change at scale and over time—is the new frontier. Ubiquitous connectivity, real-time remote monitoring, and social networking are three of the most prevalent factors revolutionizing health care. We’ll see more and more people connect to devices, share their data, and reach out to others. Doing so will allow them to enhance their care experiences by relating with others with similar symptoms, receiving social support for achieving goals, and “crowdsourcing” treatments and cures.

In addition to patients receiving more personalized guidance, individual health data that is collected will increasingly be used to provide more proactive care at the population level. Yes, many connected care solutions that collect individual data exist today, from Patients Like Me, a data-centric social networking site; Cure Together, a health-tracking site; and Asthmapolis, a system that allows patients to connect to a mobile app via a sensor-enabled inhaler. In 2013, expect more services such as these to emerge and grow. They synthesize information to make it more relevant to providers and patients alike, and therefore actionable; then these services broadcast their analyses to improve the quality of life for not just one, but for all.

The tiny clip-on Memoto camera takes two photos a minute. The Memoto app displays the GPSd photos on a timeline, so you can go back and see where you were at any point in the past.

The camera has no buttons. (That's right, no buttons.) As long as you wear the camera, it is constantly taking pictures. It takes two geotagged photos a minute with recorded orientation so that the app can show them upright no matter how you are wearing the camera. And it’s weather protected, so you don’t have to worry about it in inclement weather.

The camera and the app work together to give you pictures of every single moment of your life, complete with information on when you took it and where you were. This means that you can revisit any moment of your past.

I think it should have a pulse sensor on it so that when your heart rate increases, it starts shooting video.

The tiny clip-on Memoto camera takes two photos a minute. The Memoto app displays the GPSd photos on a timeline, so you can go back and see where you were at any point in the past.

The camera has no buttons. (That's right, no buttons.) As long as you wear the camera, it is constantly taking pictures. It takes two geotagged photos a minute with recorded orientation so that the app can show them upright no matter how you are wearing the camera. And it’s weather protected, so you don’t have to worry about it in inclement weather.

The camera and the app work together to give you pictures of every single moment of your life, complete with information on when you took it and where you were. This means that you can revisit any moment of your past.

I think it should have a pulse sensor on it so that when your heart rate increases, it starts shooting video.

Weighthacker.com is a new site for geeks who want to lose weight and
get fit. It takes the latest science and research about nutrition and
weight loss and translates it into practical, daily advice that geeks
can incorporate into their existing lifestyles.

Things like playing games, a love of gadgets and surfing the Web are
often seen as contributing to a sedentary, unhealthy existence. But
with Weighthacker, those geeky passions can be used as the foundation
of a healthy life. Weighthacks aren’t short cuts, they’re smart cuts.
They’re the smartest, most optimal things people can do to lose
weight.

I’m also crowdfunding a how-to book called “Weight Hacking: A Guide
For Geeks Who Want To Lose Weight And Get Fit.” The book will be a
complete operating system for nerds who want to lose weight and get
healthier. It will include stories of celebrity geeks who’ve lost
weight, like beloved author Neil Gaiman and BoingBoing editor Cory
Doctorow. And Bonnie Burton, who wrote the Star Wars Craft Book, will
be creating new healthy “Food Crafts” for Weight Hacking.

Weighthacker.com is a new site for geeks who want to lose weight and
get fit. It takes the latest science and research about nutrition and
weight loss and translates it into practical, daily advice that geeks
can incorporate into their existing lifestyles.

Things like playing games, a love of gadgets and surfing the Web are
often seen as contributing to a sedentary, unhealthy existence. But
with Weighthacker, those geeky passions can be used as the foundation
of a healthy life. Weighthacks aren’t short cuts, they’re smart cuts.
They’re the smartest, most optimal things people can do to lose
weight.

I’m also crowdfunding a how-to book called “Weight Hacking: A Guide
For Geeks Who Want To Lose Weight And Get Fit.” The book will be a
complete operating system for nerds who want to lose weight and get
healthier. It will include stories of celebrity geeks who’ve lost
weight, like beloved author Neil Gaiman and BoingBoing editor Cory
Doctorow. And Bonnie Burton, who wrote the Star Wars Craft Book, will
be creating new healthy “Food Crafts” for Weight Hacking.

http://boingboing.net/2012/05/02/weighthacker-weight-loss-for.html/feed26157985Data versus diabeteshttp://boingboing.net/2012/04/29/data-versus-diabetes.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/29/data-versus-diabetes.html#commentsSun, 29 Apr 2012 21:06:03 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=157328
My friend Dan Hon was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The news shook him. He resolved to do something about it. Being a geek, he decided to measure and quantify the health factors (weight, body fat, activity, blood sugar) that contribute to diabetes. He's lost 30 lbs since the new year, and has gotten pretty far into reversing his diabetes. He's detailed his experience with various kinds of monitoring tools, and written a bit of a rant about what needs to be fixed in order to make this easy for anyone with a diabetes diagnosis to follow in his footsteps.

Incumbents rarely produce great experience design. They don’t have to, and they typically are dealing with historical monopolies on consumers or audiences. But there are also some first movers who don’t seem to have improved their experience over time. I’m looking at you, Withings. It’s a bit embarrassing that Weightbot has a much better mobile app than you do, and you’re selling the hardware.

In the blood glucose testing market, it looks like patents (as ever) are acting to stop newcomers to the market, particularly patents in the device and strips. It’s complicated: they have a very heavily integrated solution and, from what I can make out, rely on insurance providers in the US. The copay I’m charged for 100 blood sugar testing strips is $10. If I’m paying retail, it’s about $110. When I’m testing up to six times a day, that’s nearly 200 strips a month.

Now, if I were being overly cynical, I’d say that the interests of a company producing blood sugar meters and strips aren’t necessarily aligned with the interests of a patient who wants to stop having diabetes. From my absolutely scientific sample size of one (me), testing before and after every single meal, and testing a fasting blood sugar in the morning has been vital to me getting my blood sugar under control. It’s meant that I’ve learned what I can eat and how much, and crucially, that I can still have burgers. If I eat less burger. And more salad. But: I can still eat burgers.

What people with diabetes should have — especially people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes — is access to cheap blood testing monitors (oh, but they are cheap! The manufacturers give them away, and then charge you for the strips in a model you might be familiar with) that are easy to use and help you see trends over time, and, cheap blood testing strips that let you test at least before and after each meal every day. If you’re on, say, Medicaid, and you can afford one testing strip a day, I don’t think the success rate of people learning trends and altering their behaviour is going to be that high.

If I were still in the startup game, I have a pretty good idea of which industry I’d want to disrupt.

My friend Dan Hon was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The news shook him. He resolved to do something about it. Being a geek, he decided to measure and quantify the health factors (weight, body fat, activity, blood sugar) that contribute to diabetes. He's lost 30 lbs since the new year, and has gotten pretty far into reversing his diabetes. He's detailed his experience with various kinds of monitoring tools, and written a bit of a rant about what needs to be fixed in order to make this easy for anyone with a diabetes diagnosis to follow in his footsteps.

Incumbents rarely produce great experience design. They don’t have to, and they typically are dealing with historical monopolies on consumers or audiences. But there are also some first movers who don’t seem to have improved their experience over time. I’m looking at you, Withings. It’s a bit embarrassing that Weightbot has a much better mobile app than you do, and you’re selling the hardware.

In the blood glucose testing market, it looks like patents (as ever) are acting to stop newcomers to the market, particularly patents in the device and strips. It’s complicated: they have a very heavily integrated solution and, from what I can make out, rely on insurance providers in the US. The copay I’m charged for 100 blood sugar testing strips is $10. If I’m paying retail, it’s about $110. When I’m testing up to six times a day, that’s nearly 200 strips a month.

Now, if I were being overly cynical, I’d say that the interests of a company producing blood sugar meters and strips aren’t necessarily aligned with the interests of a patient who wants to stop having diabetes. From my absolutely scientific sample size of one (me), testing before and after every single meal, and testing a fasting blood sugar in the morning has been vital to me getting my blood sugar under control. It’s meant that I’ve learned what I can eat and how much, and crucially, that I can still have burgers. If I eat less burger. And more salad. But: I can still eat burgers.

What people with diabetes should have — especially people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes — is access to cheap blood testing monitors (oh, but they are cheap! The manufacturers give them away, and then charge you for the strips in a model you might be familiar with) that are easy to use and help you see trends over time, and, cheap blood testing strips that let you test at least before and after each meal every day. If you’re on, say, Medicaid, and you can afford one testing strip a day, I don’t think the success rate of people learning trends and altering their behaviour is going to be that high.

If I were still in the startup game, I have a pretty good idea of which industry I’d want to disrupt.

http://boingboing.net/2012/04/29/data-versus-diabetes.html/feed46157328Behold, the Conformateur! A 19th century hat-fitting devicehttp://boingboing.net/2012/03/28/behold-the-conformateur-a-19.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/03/28/behold-the-conformateur-a-19.html#commentsWed, 28 Mar 2012 19:06:59 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=151746 Tricia Roush is justifiably excited by her acquisition of an 1821 Conformateur in excellent shape. Conformateurs are Victorian devices used to measure the irregularities in the heads of milliner's customers, to ensure a better fit from the eventual hat. Roush explains the device's working in detail, with generous photos of the extraordinary device in action.

While the conformateur is on the head, after the fingers are pressed in so that they are conforming to the head shape, a piece of paper is placed into a frame on the top of the machine. Little pins stick out of the top of the machine, each one attached to one of the fingers, so that the pins now reflect the head shape as well, but in miniature. The frame swings down on a hinge to press the paper into the pins, perforating the paper. In this photo, you can see that the inside of the frame is lined in cork, and there are little holes in the cork where the pins have pressed.

The perforations in the paper make a pattern that's a recording of the person's head shape. The hat maker then cuts the pattern out with scissors along the perforations to store for future use. Here are some examples of the paper patterns. Because it's a shrunken version of the person's head shape, any bumps and asymmetry in the head shape (we all have them) are exaggerated in the pattern, as you can see here.

Tricia Roush is justifiably excited by her acquisition of an 1821 Conformateur in excellent shape. Conformateurs are Victorian devices used to measure the irregularities in the heads of milliner's customers, to ensure a better fit from the eventual hat. Roush explains the device's working in detail, with generous photos of the extraordinary device in action.

While the conformateur is on the head, after the fingers are pressed in so that they are conforming to the head shape, a piece of paper is placed into a frame on the top of the machine. Little pins stick out of the top of the machine, each one attached to one of the fingers, so that the pins now reflect the head shape as well, but in miniature. The frame swings down on a hinge to press the paper into the pins, perforating the paper. In this photo, you can see that the inside of the frame is lined in cork, and there are little holes in the cork where the pins have pressed.

The perforations in the paper make a pattern that's a recording of the person's head shape. The hat maker then cuts the pattern out with scissors along the perforations to store for future use. Here are some examples of the paper patterns. Because it's a shrunken version of the person's head shape, any bumps and asymmetry in the head shape (we all have them) are exaggerated in the pattern, as you can see here.